Less than 24 hours of an official statement announcing a major decision to scrap all the 3,446 appointments made since 1996 by the scam-tainted Punjab Public Service Commission, Singh did a neat somersault saying the Government didn't mean what it had said.

Apparently, the fear of an adverse political fallout of rendering so many people jobless and growing party pressure to go slow prompted Singh's volte face.

For now he has taken refuge under "the case-is-sub judice" argument, saying the matter will be decided by the courts.

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